(Beirut) – The government of President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi in Egypt entered its second decade with wholesale repression, systematically detaining and punishing peaceful critics and activists, Human Rights Watch said today in its World Report 2025. Egypt’s severe economic crisis had devastating effects on people’s access to economic, social, and cultural rights while authorities thrived on a lack of accountability and public scrutiny.
For the 546-page world report, in its 35th edition, Human Rights Watch reviewed human rights practices in more than 100 countries. In much of the world, Executive Director Tirana Hassan writes in her introductory essay, governments cracked down and wrongfully arrested and imprisoned political opponents, activists, and journalists. Armed groups and government forces unlawfully killed civilians, drove many from their homes, and blocked access to humanitarian aid. In many of the more than 70 national elections in 2024, authoritarian leaders gained ground with their discriminatory rhetoric and policies.
“Egyptian authorities have shown no real will to end a zero tolerance policy toward peaceful dissent and criticism,” said Bassam Khawaja, deputy Middle East and North Africa director at Human Rights Watch. “The Egyptian government acts as if it can resolve the dire economic crisis by entrenching an environment of fear rather than fulfilling people’s social and economic rights.”
- The authorities prosecuted dozens of protesters and activists during 2024, including in relation to Palestine solidarity demonstrations. In July, the authorities arbitrarily detained more than 100 people amid online calls for protests, which did not materialize, in response to price hikes and power cuts. Independent organizations and advocacy work remain severely curtailed under the draconian restrictions of Egypt’s 2019 NGO law.
- Despite agreeing to some US$57 billion in grants and loans in 2024, the government’s economic approach, which prioritizes spending on lavish, opaque infrastructure projects including those led by the military, undermines people’s economic, social, and cultural rights. Prices are skyrocketing, poverty is increasing, and access to food and electricity is decreasing amid an unprecedented reliance on foreign debt from international partners and financial institutions.
- Egyptian authorities lifted asset freeze orders and allowed prominent human rights defenders, such as Gamal Eid, Hossam Bahgat, and others, to travel abroad for the first time since 2016, when they were prosecuted alongside dozens of other human rights advocates and organizations in the “foreign funding” case. An investigative judge said in March that the investigations were closed and charges dropped; however, several human rights defenders, in this and other cases, still faced harsh, arbitrary prosecutions, asset freezes and travel bans.
The Egyptian authorities should end systematic repression of critics and repeal repressive laws banning peaceful assembly and curtailing the work of independent organizations. It should disclose financial information about large, opaque military-run projects and fulfill people’s economic, social, and cultural rights. During Egypt’s Universal Periodic Review at the United Nations Human Rights Council in January, member states should demand Egypt address its abysmal human rights record.